"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it." — William Faulkner

Tag Archives: Ritz at the Bourse

Remember that German mountain film Bridget Von Hammersmark kept rambling on about in QT’s Inglourious Basterds? Well, North Face (Nordwand) isn’t it. (POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD) You see, this historical suspense-packed mountaineering film clearly paints the Third Reich’s desire in 1936 to use two politically indifferent Germans’ race to the top of the north face of the Eiger as a part of their propaganda machine, but it wasn’t meant to be. What’s so refreshing about North Face is that instead of showing the triumph of the men who would eventually make it to the top of the Eiger, it shows the folly of the men who didn’t: ordinary men trying to do extraordinary things (the climbers) and a government catastrophically over-reaching its power. However, whether or not the Third Reich ever gets their story about “Superior Aryan Mountain Climbers” (and they do, though it’s a footnote in history) becomes the least of their problems. Continue reading →

Nicolas Cage starred in Con Air…and 8MM…and Ghost Rider…and not one, but two National Treasure films. The list of travesties could go on and on…though I jest the National Treasure films; they are good family fun even though they are so sloppily put together.

Clearly both men are insane.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (henceforth referred to as BLt: PoCNO) is a film to watch not just for the decent into bizarro world offered up by a collaboration between German Auteur Herzog and Hollywood Movie Star Cage, it’s a film to savor for all of its layers of interesting elements. Continue reading →